Despite word that a new Broadway venue, Hue, would offer a weekday happy hour spot in addition to a snazzy Vegas-style nightclub, we've yet to see plans come to fruition. But managing member Bennett Montoya says it's still in the works and we can hope to see it roll out in the new year.
We first reported back in June that the former A3 Atmosphere club, which was plagued with police calls, was undergoing a renovation and rebranding and planned to open on July 10th. We were told it would enliven a strip of Broadway that is often shuttered during the day, with a front lounge space open in the afternoons, bachata dance lessons on Sunday evenings and a restaurant in an adjacent space at 459 Broadway.
Since then, the club has only been open on Friday and Saturday nights from 10pm–2am, and for special events and corporate parties. After months of trying to get answers, we talked to Montoya last week, who told us construction issues and lack of a marketing budget are to blame for the broken promises. (The club is also in danger of losing its liquor license, but that process could take months before a resolution.)
"We had some hiccups with a little bit of funding, but we want to go ahead and have an actual budget behind the happy hour to build it," Montoya told us. They plan to work with MetroWize marketing firm to get the word out about the happy hour and open it from 5–9pm Wednesdays through Fridays, starting the second week of January.
The adjacent space at 459 Broadway was supposed to be leased to a restaurant and open during the day to activate the street, and also to provide snacks to Hue's lounge at night. But Montoya said it's cost prohibitive to install an exhaust hood in there.
Instead, the Hue team is going to make the space, which has been used for storage, a separate lounge business with a different name. "We’re going to shoot to have construction in February after the Super Bowl," Montoya said. "We want to run it more like a neighborhood lounge bar." They plan to open it at 5pm so “hopefully we can get more foot traffic out on our section of Broadway," he added.
The plan is to get a convection oven and serve light finger foods in the space as well as in Hue's lounge during happy hour. While it's not a sports bar atmosphere, they did add some screens in Hue for watching Giants, Warriors and 49ers games due to demand.
Montoya said he hopes to attract a bevy of celebrities and athletes to Hue's parties during the Super Bowl festivities and is focused on that, as well as upcoming holiday parties. But Montoya did say "Hot Bachata Nights" should start in mid-January, with lessons on bachata, salsa and kizomba from 7:30–10pm Sundays and a dance party starting at 10pm.
In addition to big-name DJs like Clinton Sparks and DJ Cobra, Montoya said the club is going to add more live music and "neo-soul" dance parties in the new year. It's had live band showcases with local acts who bring their own crowd, but they're going to start marketing live bands more, he said, adding, "We really want to stress live music on Broadway."
